Practicing skills such as extrication with Oostburg Fire Department keep our skills fresh and help us identify areas needing extra training or practice before the real “crunch time”.
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Practice, Practice, Practice
EMT’s go through a 100 hour course, and then an additional 120 hours for the Intermediate course.
In addition our personnel not only practice our skills twice a month but also have a refresher course every two years.
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With 10 miles of Interstate I-43 passing through our territory, we often can be found at accident scenes on the busy Interstate highway.
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Many of our runs are on rural roads, or should
we say “off” rural roads. Here Oostburg Fire Department helps us load a patient of a rollover accident.
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“Prom Nite”
An annual public awareness demonstration of the
heartache
associated with driving and drinking.
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Each year, Oostburg Ambulance in conjunction with other Sheboygan County ambulance, first responder, law enforcement and individuals from several other professions try to reach the public with the horrors we see associated with drunk driving.
These demonstrations have drawn huge crowds and many attending have left visibly moved by the message. |
Student actors go over the scenario and the parts they will play in the demonstration. |
Recreating the horrors of a traffic accident for the demonstration is time consuming. |
The
darkness of the nighttime is pierced by the sound of the crash, screams and
moans from the victims, flashing lights and sirens from the emergency and law
enforcement vehicles. Chaos ensues as parents arrive and cry out as they find
their loved one dead, and then turn their sorrow into rage at the drunk driver
who caused their pain. Hydraulic shears cut through metal as cars are pulled
apart, and the screams continue. |
| And through it all the first responders and ambulance personnel continue to help those who can be saved. Ambulances come and go. Fire Department personnel take apart the vehicles with their Jaws of Life to gain access to trapped victims. Soon all that can be saved are gone with the last ambulance , and all that is left are skeletons of vehicles and shrouded bodies. As the Sheriff removes the drunk driver in handcuffs, the only sound that remains is deathly silence. Many in attendance talk about that silence for a long time to come. |
While a crowd of over 600 watch, EMT’s from Oostburg Ambulance prepare one of the “victims” for transport. |
Those that weren’t as fortunate in this “accident” are covered up as the crowd watches in silence. |
Finally the hearse arrives and those whose lives have been lost in this tragedy are slowly put into body bags. Many comment about the sound of that long zipper being closed. A sound of permanence, an end. And soon even the hearse is gone and all that remains is the silence of the crowd as they leave, each thinking their private thoughts, each one changed. |
